Although the impact on the world economy of the Delta variant of coronavirus is still a great unknown, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) believes that it will not reduce the estimated oil demand for 2021 and 2022, writes EFE.

“The global economy continues to recover,” OPEC said in its monthly oil market report. “However, the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic will be a determining factor in the pace of recovery, with the possible emergence of new variants or mutations as a risk,” OPEC added.

Although analysts at the 13-nation oil group, which controls 40 percent of global oil production, have surged global growth increase by 0.1 percent in both 2021 (5.6 percent) and 2022 (4.2 percent), demand forecasts have remained unchanged over the past two years, according to Agerpres.

Thus, according to the report, the estimated demand for 2021 is similar to that calculated a month ago, with an annual increase of about 6 million barrels per day (mbpd), up to 96.6 mbpd.

For 2022, this demand will increase by another 3.3 mbpd, to 99.9 mbpd, reaching pre-pandemic levels and punctually exceeding, in the last quarter, the historic threshold of 100 mbpd for the first time. And these calculations are similar to those presented in the July report.

However, OPEC analysts are cautious about the impact of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the effects of which were already felt in July and August, tempering optimism about the economy’s recovery through its expansion into major economies.

The average price of a barrel of OPEC oil in July was of $73.53, the highest value since October 2018, which the group attributes to “solid market fundamentals.”